Teenage prodigy Abe Uta looks unstoppable

Abe Uta of Japan won her fourth IJF World Judo Tour event in a row to extend her winning-streak to 24 contests. Paris Grand Slam winner Abe, 17, held down former Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix bronze medallist Wu Shugen (CHN) for 20 seconds and ippon in the U52kg final.

Japan’s latest starlet has now won her last 10 contests all by ippon and is becoming more and more dominant as she heads towards her first senior World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in September. Former U48kg competitor Wu was only competing at -52kg for the second time and based on this showing will remain there for this Olympic cycle.

In the first semi-final Rome European Open silver medallist Ana Perez Box (ESP) lost out by hansoku-make for three shidos against Wu. In the second semi-final ABE defeated Pan American Championships silver medallist Angelica Delgado (USA) by ippon after only 15 seconds.

The first bronze medal was awarded to 2013 Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix winner Park Da Sol (KOR) who submitted Delgado with a juji-gatame.          

The second bronze medal was won by Perez Box who beat Grand Prix debutant Jang Yejin (KOR) with a forceful ouchi-gari for ippon. Former Junior Asian Championships silver medallist Jang finished fifth but both judoka achieved their best results on the IJF World Judo Tour in Inner Mongolia today and still have a lot of room for improvement.